Disclaimer: Sadly, none are mine or Joan would be a guest on CM every now and again.

*cm*joa*

Aaron Hotchner walked into the prison with trepidation.He was betting that David’s ‘niece’ was a lot like her ‘uncle,’ but circumstances were far from his control.He couldn’t warn her and work out a plan.He had no other option, but to spring the surprise on her and hope she played along.

Joan Girardi was waiting in the visitor’s area, checking her watch and looking worried.Her eyes flicked up when Hotch walked into the room, but then slid past him to the door.Hotch saw the moment she recognized him: it was written all over her face.She didn’t try to hide it.There was hope for Hotch’s plan.

“Where’s Uncle David?”

“Yes,” that evil, evil Unsub piped up from the door.“Where is the great Uncle David?”

“In surgery.”

Girardi gasped and the Unsub giggled in delight.Girardi’s glare actually made the man quiet.

Hotch motioned to the door.“If you’ll come with me, Ms. Girardi, I’ll escort you to him and explain everything on the way.”

The Unsub sat down between the two up-holders of the law.“Or, you know.You could tell us both everything right now.”

Girardi leaned over the man and hissed.“What’s it worth to you?”She took the words right out of Hotch’s mouth.Yes, this girl was just like her uncle.

The Unsub thought about it.“Three names.”

“Five,” Girardi countered.

Hotch fully expected the Unsub to counter with ‘four,’ but he leaned away from her and muttered, “fine.”Hotch was impressed.He had been hoping for a measly three names and places to give David when he finally woke.

“You first,” Girardi told the murderer.

For once, he didn’t draw out his amusement at taking a life and Girardi’s horror.He wanted to see Girardi’s reaction to her uncle’s peril.“You now,” he said after he had fulfilled his side of the bargain.Both of them looked to Hotch and he told them of the case a hundred miles down the road, the young unsub and his mother than had pulled a gun on Rossi during the arrest.David was currently in critical care and they didn’t even know if he would make it off the operating table.Every emotion played on Girardi’s face.The murderer drank it in like a fine wine.

At the end of the tale, Girardi fled the table, shoulders shaking and the murderer clapped as if at a performance.“Bravo!” he actually said.“Come back any time, Agent Hotchner.You’re so entertaining.”

Hotch didn’t react to him, but motioned a guard to take the man back to his cell.Girardi wasn’t waiting outside the visiting area and Hotch couldn’t see a bathroom nearby.He’d wait at the car.He’d thank Girardi for her assistance and offer to take her home so that she could worry in private.

Hotch found Girardi waiting at his car, texting.She looked up long enough for Hotch to see her dry eyes.Oh.It had been a performance.David would be so proud of her.She had opened the door so that Hotch might be able to get victims’ names out of the Unsub sometime in the future.

“Is Penelope at the hospital?”

Hotch was a bit embarrassed at the moment pause he gave her.“She’s on her way.”

She put her hand on the passenger’s side door of Hotch’s car, clearly waiting for him to let her in.“I have an order for everyone waiting at Boylan Road Restaurant.We can pick it up on the way.”

“We can?” Hotch echoed mildly.

“You’re not leaving me behind,” Girardi promised.

David would like to see her when he woke so Hotch unlocked all of the doors.“What about your car?”

“It’s in the shop.I came in a taxi.”There was a funny twist to Girardi’s lips, but Hotch would analyze that later.Right now, he had to care for his team, which meant picking up a (reputably fantastic) meal while they waited for their teammate to pull through.